Temporary Saint
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
In October of last year, I purchased two Amano shrimp for my 55-gal community tank. There was plenty of algae and hiding places for them. The next day they were gone. I couldn't believe that any of my fish ate them (I have mostly small tetras and three green swordtails. My largest fish is a dwarf gourami) so I thought they got sucked in by the overflow to my DIY canister filter. I checked the filter and found nothing, so I thought the fish were the culprits.
Fast forward to this past weekend. I was performing routine maintenance on my filter, which is seated in the sump. As I was removing the top of the filter to extract the mechanical media, I noticed movement in the sump. I couldn't believe it, but I thought it might have been a survivor of a recent live-bearing of my Green Swordtails. They have been bearing young on a monthly basis since August. On closer inspection, it turned out to be one of the Amanos! Then I saw the second one! Incredible! Think of it - they survived finding a way through the mechanical media, through the bio media, and exiting the filter, to spend over three months in nearly constant total darkness, feeding what could have only been flakes of the brown slime that grows at the water line of the sump. They even managed not to get sucked in and shredded by the return pump.
I netted them and returned them to the tank. One of them immediately found an excellent hiding place, disappearing in seconds. The other one settled on some driftwood and set about eating its first real meal in a long time. In less than an hour it cleared a quarter-sized circle of algae from the driftwood and then disappeared in its own hiding place. I hope they stay in the tank. I have made the overflow a little safer for them, but one never knows. Placing any type of strainer/screen on the overflow restricts the flow too much, causing the tank to flood.
Cheers ya'll,
Steve
Fast forward to this past weekend. I was performing routine maintenance on my filter, which is seated in the sump. As I was removing the top of the filter to extract the mechanical media, I noticed movement in the sump. I couldn't believe it, but I thought it might have been a survivor of a recent live-bearing of my Green Swordtails. They have been bearing young on a monthly basis since August. On closer inspection, it turned out to be one of the Amanos! Then I saw the second one! Incredible! Think of it - they survived finding a way through the mechanical media, through the bio media, and exiting the filter, to spend over three months in nearly constant total darkness, feeding what could have only been flakes of the brown slime that grows at the water line of the sump. They even managed not to get sucked in and shredded by the return pump.
I netted them and returned them to the tank. One of them immediately found an excellent hiding place, disappearing in seconds. The other one settled on some driftwood and set about eating its first real meal in a long time. In less than an hour it cleared a quarter-sized circle of algae from the driftwood and then disappeared in its own hiding place. I hope they stay in the tank. I have made the overflow a little safer for them, but one never knows. Placing any type of strainer/screen on the overflow restricts the flow too much, causing the tank to flood.
Cheers ya'll,
Steve
